My Humps
"My Humps" is the third single from The Black Eyed Peas' fourth album, Monkey Business. Released in 2005, the single reached a position of #3 in the U.S., becoming the Black Eyed Peas' third Top 10 single on the U.S. mainstream radio charts. Background The song was co-written and produced by will.i.am, and interpolates Sexual Harassment's "I Need a Freak". In this sexual number, a woman (in this case, Fergie) uses her breasts and her buttocks as tools to get men to spend money on her. The song refers to "humps", as in one's buttocks, and "lumps", as in a woman's breasts, at times interchanging the plurals of these objects and thus confusing their meaning. On the album, there is a bonus track attached to "My Humps" known as "So Real". It features the piano playing with the phrase "so real" spoken repeatedly. Criticism "My Humps" has been the subject of severe criticism by the music press. John Bush, writing for All Music Guide, described it as "one of the most embarrassing rap performances of the new millennium", while Bill Lamb, writing for About.com called it "the musical equivalent of a bad Farrelly Brothers movie". Hua Hsu of Slate goes so far to say, "It's not Awesomely Bad; it's Horrifically Bad. ... There are bad songs that offend our sensibilities but can still be enjoyed, and then there are the songs that are just really bad—transcendentally bad, objectively bad." It was deemed by online comedy site Something Awful as the worst song of 2005. Much of the criticism of the song stems from its repetitive lyrics ("My hump" is repeated fifty-five times) and its exploitation of the female body. There is also a subliminal message in it, when you play "she's got me spending" backwords, it says "empty my dish" Chart Performance The single also reached #3 in the UK Top 40 making it their sixth Top 10 single. The song, which was not initially released as a single ("Don't Lie" was intended to be the lead-off release for the album) is notable as an example of an unsolicited single atypically garnering unusual amounts of airplay and popularity. The song also receives heavy airplay in strip clubs. Music Video Following the song's popularity, several videos were placed on file-sharing networks claiming to be the video for the song, but these files were actually clips of pornography. The official music video for "My Humps" premiered on TRL and shows Fergie dancing with backup dancers as images of expensive items such as Louis Vuitton purses and jewelry appear on the screen. The other members of the Black Eyed Peas (Apl.de.ap, Taboo, and will.i.am) sing about how much they spend on Fergie as she sings about her "humps" and "lovely lady lumps." Of all of the videos released by the band, "My Humps" is the first to showcase Fergie above all other band members. The video received the award for Best Hip Hop Video at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards on August 31, 2006. See also *"My Humps" lyrics *"My Humps" Remix lyrics References External links * Music video (Lil Jon remix) * Music video parody by Mad TV (My Slump) * Lyrics Category:Songs Category:Music Videos Category:Monkey Business